Department of Modern English Language and Linguistics
Distinguished Professor Cathy Grimm-Blaze is a leading scholar of language, gender and social inequality whose research examines the relationship between discourse, identity and structural oppression. Her work combines critical linguistic analysis with a commitment to challenging established assumptions about power and representation. She is the author of several influential books, including Women Are Not From Venus (2015), The Weaker Sex? (2022) and When Words Are Violence (2024). Her latest book, Motherfucker: A Provocation (2026), explores the politics of linguistic transgression and the emancipatory possibilities of offensive language.
Teaching
MELL 306 Linguistic Violence
MELL307 Intersectional Approaches to Language
MELL Language and Social Justice
Publications
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2026) Motherfucker: A Provocation. Star Oxen Press: Babington.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2024) When Words Are Violence. Star Oxen Press: Babington.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2022) The Weaker Sex? Star Oxen Press: Babington.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2021) “Mask up!”: The role of COVID in communicating oppression of minority groups. Language, Power and Praxis 41(2): 111-137.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2015) Women Are Not From Venus. Star Oxen Press: Babington.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2013) Learning how to be in a Botswana market-place. The Journal of the British Association of Narratology and Linguistics 23(1): 32-54.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2011) Cataloguing protest songs in Botswana matriarchal society: a reflexive account of unanswered ethical considerations. The Journal of the British Association of Narratology and Linguistics 21(2): 135-164.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2009) The marketisation of race through skin-whitening adverts. The Journal of the British Association of Narratology and Linguistics 19(1): 56-81.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2007) What is this praxis I see before me? Reflexive Methodologies 21(3): 321-323.
- Grimm-Blaze, C. (2005) Pragmatics in Setswana. Medaller Publishing: Gaborone.